LAHORE:
Groundwater, the main source of water supply, is rapidly depleting because of
extensive water pumping in comparison to poor recharge, while groundwater is
known to be adequate in Lahore, Gujranwala, Multan and Sialkot. But the
situation in Faisalabad and many other cities is less favourable.

This was said in the Punjab Urban Water
and Sanitation Policy of the Government of the Punjab aimed at guiding and
supporting provincial institutions, district governments, tehsil municipal
administrations, water utilities and communities to improve water and
sanitation.

Sources told PAGE that the policy
stemmed from wider stakeholder consultations held at the provincial and city
levels with institutional, primary and secondary stakeholders. The policy
provides an overarching framework to address the legal, regulatory,
institutional, administrative and environmental issues and challenges faced by
the urban water and sanitation sector in the Punjab. The policy is consistent
with the National Sanitation Policy 2006 and National Environment Policy 2005.

The Punjab Urban Water and Sanitation
Policy says access to piped water in Punjab's cities is estimated to be only 55
percent since many urban settlers rely on individual groundwater and other
un-secure sources. Access to the piped water supply and sanitation service
through direct connections to distribution networks exceeds 75 percent in
Lahore, Sialkot and Rawalpindi, but is below 30 percent in Gujranwala,
Bahawalpur, Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan.

Several cities have connection ratio to
sewers higher than to piped water. For instance in Multan, 55 percent of
households are reported to be connected to sewers through 126,000 connections,
while less than 20 percent are said to have access to piped water through 37,000
connections, the sources say.

Since local aquifers are saline, the
main source of fresh water for Bahawalpur, DG Khan and Sargodha is the seepage
from large irrigation canals. Groundwater is not only tapped by WASAs and TMAs
but also by real and industrial estates and cantonment areas. Abstraction by
these independent WSS service providers is often not negligible.

In Lahore, the sources said it was
estimated that abstraction by users other than the WASA represented 30 percent
of the water consumed. Unregulated abstraction has led to the lowering of the
water level by half a metre per year in the past 30 years. Lahore WASA has
commissioned a mathematical model of the aquifer to help monitor its performance
and design a plan to re-deploy bore holes. Other cities lack access to such a
sophisticated tool. Most households or industries tap ground water without any
permission and monitoring since no groundwater abstraction fee is levied to
manage demand. Apart from groundwater, Rawalpindi and towns on the Potohar
Plateau get a large chunk of their supplies from surface sources or reservoirs
and are often short of water, especially in summer.

Currently, wastewater in the five large
cities is collected by WASA and in other cities by DGs or TMAs. A varying level
of wastewater collection and the drainage system exists in all cities though
none of them has managed to cater for total wastewater generated in the city.
Typically, the wastewater collection and drainage system has a combined
collection of storm and domestic sewers. There is no separation of domestic and
industrial wastewater. Overflows from the open drains to low-lying areas and
ponds of wastewater are commonly observed.

Raw sewage is either used for
irrigation or discharged into fresh water bodies through a network of drains,
ultimately running into rivers. Water from these water bodies and rivers is
again used for irrigation. The river waters contaminated by untreated municipal
and industrial discharges are also used for drinking. All this has serious
environmental concerns and impacts on the ecosystem and human health
significantly.

In the Punjab, none of the cities has a
proper wastewater treatment system, except in Faisalabad having a limited
capacity of treating only 20 percent of the total wastewater generated in the
city. There are some individual wastewater treatment plants in some of the
industries, mostly the exporting industries. These plants are installed under
the international environmental governance by buyers.

It is estimated that the urban WSS
sector employs over 10,000 staff, of which 6,700 in Lahore and 1,800 in the
eight other large urban centres. These figures exclude staff employed by
Punjab's agencies, such as PHED. The number of staff per 1,000 water connections
is higher in Lahore (14) than in other urban centres (5.5). Punjab institutions
train engineers mostly on design and construction techniques, but provide few
courses on O&M. In general, profiles of WSS are inadequate and staff lacks
training. WSS are both operated and regulated by the government in a
conglomeration of functions, which are in need of being extricated. In TMA,
there is no separate accounting for WSS, which is the necessary basis for
accountability. WASA are "autonomous agencies" but essential functions
are not in the hands of the WASA management.

Punjab WSS institutions lack
accountability mostly because of an unclear mandate of the key functions of
policy formulation, ownership of WSS assets and operating the WSS service. This
is further aggravated by weak economic set-up, poor financial resources and
inadequate or non-enforced environmental regulations.

Tariff revenues of WASA and TMA even
fail to cover the current operating costs because of poor collection rates and
low tariff levels. Service providers respond to financial shocks by reducing
service quality (for example, reducing hours of service to reduce electricity
costs). Poor maintenance and efficiency leads to existing resources being poorly
employed, thus contributing to the vicious circle of poor performance, poor
service, poor collection rates and insufficient funding.

The community behaviour and attitude
towards water conservation and responsibility to pay bills is poor because of
poor education and communication strategies. The partnership with the private
sector in the absence of clear policy guidelines and procurement process has
failed to yield the desired potential and engagement with the sector.